Page 10 of Second Chance Baby

And then it had been on.

Now we were nothing but strangers who happened to be parents. And our little girl was the best thing that had ever happened to me—after her mother.

Her mother who’d dropped me cold and basically skipped out on raising our child with me. She’d just started notresponding to me and seeming as if she was miserable. Then she’d screamed she needed a break. And that had been it.

She was on top of the modeling world, and I was just the high school boyfriend who’d accidentally impregnated her when the damn condom broke.

But we were still rolling across a bed together. Touching each other as if we were used to doing it every day—and once upon a time, we had been.

Here and now, there was no anger between us. When that photographer had said, “go,” we’d gone at each other like wild animals, as if the room wasn’t full of people, though it absolutely was. Many techs and assistants, plus both of our agents, that lech of a cameraman, and countless others.

My mind had been in a haze since we’d originally locked gazes, and I’d taken in every one of her sexy as hell curves in her low-cut jersey dress. The silky material had clung to her breasts and hips like a lover, and if a man could be jealous of a damn dress, then I was.

Bad enough I’d envied how she’d talked to my brother. Not like she’d flirted with him. That wasn’t Bridget. She’d never been the type of girl to try to elicit that kind of reaction from me. She’d always been a straight-shooter who kept things real. No games. No subterfuge. Exactly why I’d fallen so hard for her.

But she’d bought and read all his books. And that was unexpected.

It had been a damn long time since I’d been surprised. Today was full of them.

Now we were kissing as if we’d been shot headfirst into the past. We weren’t tiptoeing around one another to not upset the delicate balance between us. The one thing we always agreed on was that Carrington was our sole focus, so we worked hard at keeping the peace.

Treating each other with respect and basically kid gloves so none of the emotions we’d battled back for years had a chance to slip free.

Or the emotionsI’dbattled back. She’d never seemed to have any in my direction. Bridget seemed to slip on a cool emotionless mask so easily when it came to me—tous.

But she loved our little girl. Every time she saw her, she gave her the biggest hugs and then asked her so many questions about her life. All the details she should get to witness on a daily basis.

If she was here. With us. Like she goddamn should be.

“Cut!”

Breathing hard, I dragged myself back from her and realized I’d ripped open the bodice of her dress. Just torn it away from one of her full, glorious breasts as if we were alone in this crowded room.

Which we absolutely were not.

Holy shit, my cock was hard enough to rip through my damn jeans.

“Okay, we’re probably going to have to reshoot this. Can’t have skin flashing. Not that kind of book cover. Unless we can do heavy edits.” Drake coughed his way through a lascivious laugh. Everyone else had gone stone silent.

I looked up at the sudden flurry of activity as the room cleared out with barely a word, just the occasional mutter or soft apology before Drake and the two of us were the only ones left. “Fuck it,” he said, throwing up his hands before he followed everyone else.

Leaving us alone in the silence only broken by our heavy breathing.

She didn’t move to cover herself or make any effort to tug the dangling piece of material back into place. She just stared up at me with her heavy blue eyes, her wet lips parted, and herruby lipstick smeared all over her chin. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like right now.

Honestly, I didn’t give a shit.

I opened my mouth to speak but she reached up to grab my face before I could. “Do not apologize. Got it? Do. Not.”

“But I was rough. Your dress?—”

“I loved it. Every minute. I have more dresses. Many more you can rip up and destroy, and you do noteverhave to apologize.” Then she released a throaty laugh. “Well, actually I lied. Yes, you do, but only if you don’t finish what you started here.” As if she was imparting a great secret, she brushed her mouth over my ear. The past and the present were tangled up in my brain. “My panties are soaked.”

“Let’s see.” I ignored every alarm bell clanging in my head as I reached down to flip up her dress. She didn’t make a sound as I brushed the back of my fingers over the drenched panel guarding her from me. The noises that left me were barely human. Before I could talk myself out of it, I violently tore down her panties and tossed them over my shoulder before I fell between her legs like a starving man.

Yanking her to my lips felt like a miracle.

The best kind of fever dream.

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